Clients understand the value of SEO initiatives when the results may take weeks or even months to pan out? Columnist shares her advice.

How do you show the value of long-term SEO recommendations in the short term?
Before we get into the actions themselves, let me clarify what I mean by “long-term SEO.” To me, this refers to things that generally take a longer period of time to have an effect on SEO progress. This includes subdomain transitions, link-building programs, Schema recommendations, HTTPS implementation and more.
Take HTTPS as an example. As search marketers, we know there is long-term value in transitioning to a secured site.

Aggregate case studies

This time, we put together a recommendation that included case studies, potential impact and a strategy for the transition.
Guess what? They are currently in the process of moving it. Hooray!
One of the nice things about the search industry is the sharing of information and the willingness to help one another. Plus, let’s be real — there probably isn’t anything you are doing that hasn’t already been done.

Extra tip: Take a look at what competitors are doing. If you can show that 75 percent of your competitors have implemented the recommended strategy and are performing better than you, that’ll usually get the attention of those in charge.

Put together a use barner

I’ll be the first to say that hreflang implementation has, and continues to be, a real thorn in my side. I have nightmares about no return tags.
The problem started a few years back when I spent actual days creating hreflang XML sitemaps for all 30 of my client’s geo-specific domains — domains that didn’t contain the same pages and were continually changing. Yes, I realize this is a bad strategy (now), but at the time I was determined to get the sites targeted properly, and I was going to do it in one swoop. Go big or go home.

Find query data

Each month we document impressions, clicks and queries from Google Search Console. There are certainly useful keyword data/content ideas in there, but I like to see how the overall impression and query data grows.

Keyword visibility
There are a number of things I like about SEMrush: one is the ability to look at organic keyword visibility both now and in the past to see how it has changed.

Similar to Search Console data, this doesn’t necessarily translate to traffic or conversion increases but does showcase performance improvements.

Final thoughts
The biggest challenges for any agency (search or otherwise) are getting buy-in, driving execution and being able to show your value as an organization. For SEOs who are working on a long-term strategy, that last piece can be extremely difficult.

Source:searchengineland

Peter Zmijewski is the founder and CEO at KeywordSpy. His expert knowledge on Internet Marketing practices and techniques has earned him the title “Internet Marketing Guru“ He is also an innovator, investor and entrepreneur widely recognized by the top players in the industry.